New breed of ‘shopumentary’ will have you rolling in the aisles
his cost of living crisis malarkey is no fun whatsoever. Everyone’s shivering instead of putting the heating on and wondering how to reduce their frankly astronomical food bills.
And while she can’t help with the former, ex
host Denise van Outen has a few thoughts on the latter.
The chirpy Essex girl and queen of the mundane will have you believe there’s a quiet revolution afoot. At least that’s the premise behind
T(Channel 4, Sunday, 8pm).
It’s hot on the heels of similar shows that answer the burning questions of the day, such as what Aldi’s next big thing might be, how Harrods fared in taste tests against Lidl and what Jamie Oliver can knock up in an air fryer.
It’s probably not going to contain any ground-breaking revelations for anyone who’s given the subject a bit of thought.
It’s not as though the country is riddled with huge factories that only produce own brand items for Sainsbo’s or Asda.
The same manufacturers must produce stuff for them all, right?
Well pretty much, yeah.
But to reach this conclusion we need to watch seemingly endless footage of Denise perusing the aisles with her trolley, peering at the shelves and pondering how we are no longer embarrassed to plump for own labels.
Now, anyone who’s had a look on the shelves of Aldi or Lidl will have noticed how remarkably similar some of the packaging is. Copyright law? Who is she? you may wonder as your own label goods are dispatched through the checkout at the speed of light.
The product names themselves are remarkably similar. On the radio the other day, a debate was raging about whether those chocolate covered wafer biscuits are really called Blue Riband. Someone thought that was the Aldi version and that the original was actually Blue Ribbon. Sigh.
Anyhow, Denise will seek to illustrate that there’s very little difference between the big brands and the cheapo versions, all with a saucy wink in her trademark delivery – “that’s more puffs for your money,” she quips while comparing the price of Wotsits.
Cast your mind to a different crisis that gripped the nation recently – when people were fighting in lumps over loo roll.
The level of anguish over the Andrex was unprecedented and everyone and their dog had an opinion on the supply chain and what was wrong with it.
At the time, the media tried to restore some equilibrium by interviewing a manufacturer who assured viewers that there was plenty to go around.
Fast forward a couple of years and here’s possibly the same chap, insisting that big brand bog roll is just the same as the cheaper stuff – it’s all made from the same raw material.
He’s interviewed in front of a truly gigantic roll of the stuff which apparently would last the average family of four a lifetime.
You’ve honestly never seen a man so touchingly proud of the quality of his loo roll. So much so that he even appears to have two tiny orange loo rolls stuffed into his ears – although in fairness they might just be earplugs.
More in-depth analysis follows. For instance, did you know that own brand ibuprofen and paracetamol are the same as the big names?
They have to follow the same recipe to be licensed – although they can be rolled in a smooth coating and plonked into a shiny box to make them look more expensive.
Of course, no programme of this ilk would be complete without a few taste tests and suitably stunned participants who discover that Tesco’s own brand chicken dippers don’t in fact taste like sawdust in breadcrumbs after all.
None of which is earthshattering stuff to the discerning shopper who’s been mixing and matching with big brands and own labels for years.
But it’s typical of this new breed of ‘shopumentary’ that takes an myth, turns it on its head and gets a half a dozen posh people in for a taste test to back it up.
It manages to avoid being preachy and even injects a bit of humour into the dreary process of analysing the weekly shop, even if some of the quips are a bit forced.
It’s an entertaining enough watch and it if saves you a few quid on your food bill, who are we to argue?